Will we go up this season?

[PaulHalfway]

We have a stronger team than last year in every position, so with some luck and keeping our best players fit and in form it’s going to be an exciting and interesting season to see where we end up
Momentum and confidence is key plus ability to keep clean sheets and when required win ugly games when it could go either way.

 

[Blade82]

The next set of 6 games look easier ‘on paper’ than the first 6.

But we dropped vital points last season to Brizzle Birmingham, Preston Millwalll & Hull. We had a shocking return of only 8/30 points from these clubs last season (home & away).

These are the games we really need to be winning if we’re serious contenders this time around.

2 points per game from the 6 and we’re where we need to be.

 

[Blade56]

No.
Yes.
I mean no.
But possibly yes.

Can Roy of the Rovers club overcome the billionaires? Will the PL, football gods, owners and FA find reasons to prevent it other than just football? YES.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

. In all honesty id be happy with another top half finish.

Why?

 

[Blade56]

Oh, here he is again look.

I’m surprised you’re still here. You spout nothing but doom and gloom bollocks. Isn’t it about time you vacated this forum?

It would help if you learnt how to use the reply button so we know who you are slagging off!

Seriously though it won't be until about begining of nov before we have any idea of the position we could finish in....then take into account injuries that could happen, new league rulings..see first part...etc...etc

Disagree db, based on your observation the November league position last season suggested we would be promoted but our second half of the season performance was relegation form.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

The next set of 6 games look easier ‘on paper’ than the first 6.

But we dropped vital points last season to Brizzle Birmingham, Preston Millwalll & Hull. We had a shocking return of only 8/30 points from these clubs last season (home & away).

These are the games we really need to be winning if we’re serious contenders this time around.

2 points per game from the 6 and we’re where we need to be.

You contradicted yourself there nicely and I'm glad you did, because your opening sentence is something we hear a lot, and it's a very dangerous way to think. There are NO easy games at this level. And I mean NONE.ZERO. ZILCH.

It's simply not possible to say one team will be easier than another to play. On the day it's 11 v 11 and it will come down to the following:

• Attitude
• Ability
• Luck

A manager can have a big influence on the first one - but he's pretty much stuck with what he's got in terms of the second one, and he can have no influence at all over the third one.

When folks talk about "on paper" they are really only looking at the second one, the ability of the players, based on what's known about them - and sometimes that is also pretty much Zero as well.

Anyhow, your further comments are testament to this. We are more than capable of losing to lesser teams, in fact mostly I prefer us to be playing the bigger, more fancied teams, because we seem to be more up for it.

 

[Broomhall Blade]

My head says no.
Yes we were exceptional against Villa but i can't help thinking Villa are a club in disarray at the moment playing poor football.I think the game against Bristol City will give us an indication of where we are at.
For me we are just not strong enough in the striking department. Billy always has a quiet period every season, Clarke can't buy a goal at the moment and always seems to miss a few games through injury, suspension. McGoldrick if you are being realistic if we get 30 games out of him this season that would be some result, but even if we did i can't see him scoring many. Washington is never going to be prolific, he will run around alot but will have done really well to reach double figures goal wise.But on the plus side we do seem to be scoring more goals from midfield this season.
I just feel we are a top striker away from being promotion contenders and unfortunately they cost big bucks which we don't have. I can't see this being resolved in January, especially as we have been told before how hard it is to get clubs to sell good players in January.
But at least its refreshing to see an honest thread about our promotion chances. Unlike over on Porktalk after thrashing 3 Promotion candidates in their last 3 games they have no one to fear and HMS Piss the league even gets a mention.
The only thing that might stop them is if Barcelona come calling for old Borat.
They love to call us Classless all the time on Porktalk, well they must be the most Delusional set of fans in the country.
Some of their fans have even said they should stop playing tin pot sides like Mansfield in Pre-season friendlies after having their Fairy banned for 3 games.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Going by Saturdays performance, It’s gonna be fun finding out.

 

[Champagneblade]

2nd.

I told you all.

Why is there even a thread debating it?

 

[Blade82]

You contradicted yourself there nicely and I'm glad you did, because your opening sentence is something we hear a lot, and it's a very dangerous way to think. There are NO easy games at this level. And I mean NONE.ZERO. ZILCH.

It's simply not possible to say one team will be easier than another to play. On the day it's 11 v 11 and it will come down to the following:

• Attitude
• Ability
• Luck

A manager can have a big influence on the first one - but he's pretty much stuck with what he's got in terms of the second one, and he can have no influence at all over the third one.

When folks talk about "on paper" they are really only looking at the second one, the ability of the players, based on what's known about them - and sometimes that is also pretty much Zero as well.

Anyhow, your further comments are testament to this. We are more than capable of losing to lesser teams, in fact mostly I prefer us to be playing the bigger, more fancied teams, because we seem to be more up for it.

I know games aren’t won on paper and that’s exactly the point I was trying to make (but obviously failed). I’m certainly not complacent or expecting these to be a breeze.

To get promoted we have to improve on these sort of results.

Year on year results so far have improved with wins over Norwich, Villa & QPR so hopefully that continues with the next lot of games.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

The powerful striker is coming in January. We should start a separate thread about this! I think it will be Kieffer Moore.

Yes , I understand after seeing posts over on ' Let's Get Some Moneh Spent Mill ' that the prerequisite for any new striker is no longer black / young / pacy / hungry but ' powerful ' .

Somebody like Higgopotamus then ?

 

[8lade]

The next set of 6 games look easier ‘on paper’ than the first 6.

As others have already stated there are no easy games and you only have to look back to last season where we romped 2 tough games (Wednesday and Wolves) and then rolled over for Forest. Having said that Bristol City are no mugs either, they started slowly (as we did) but have since taken down decent sides in Swansea and Blackburn, it'll be a good marker.

 

[Bill Johnson]

Yes , I understand after seeing posts over on ' Let's Get Some Moneh Spent Mill ' that the prerequisite for any new striker is no longer black / young / pacy / hungry but ' powerful ' .

Somebody like Higgopotamus then ?

I'm happy to be wrong but pretty sure I coined Higgopotomus. Admittedly i bever copywrighted it but the likes of Grayblade seanthornton and cough coghhtopplayersalways leave might corroborate this. 100% Blade.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

I'm happy to be wrong but pretty sure I coined Higgopotomus. Admittedly i bever copywrighted it but the likes of Grayblade seanthornton and cough coghhtopplayersalways leave might corroborate this. 100% Blade.

If you did , you can be justifiably proud although I'm puzzled by the fact that your avatar says you only joined in August of this year .

It was certainly around a long time before that , but perhaps there is a good explanation for this apparent anomaly?

 

[Deadbat]

Bristol will be toughest test since Boro. Take a draw...then two home games v bottom half teams where we can look to pick up more points...by next break you would hope we are still top 6 and Coutts ready to come back in

 

[blackydog]

If you did , you can be justifiably proud although I'm puzzled by the fact that your avatar says you only joined in August of this year .

It was certainly around a long time before that , but perhaps there is a good explanation for this apparent anomaly?

As in a welcome back?

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

As in a welcome back?

As in ' ..... after a non-voluntary forum holiday '? I can't keep up with 'em these days .



PS . It's not Tyler is it ! ?

 

[BladeInIreland]

Why?

Don't think we've done enough to expect a much higher finish. If we do great, but If we didn't make the play offs id hardly say wilder underachieved. A top half finish is good in my books until the ownership issue is sorted.

 

[Tom Bott]

Dont the bookies make us 5th favs to go up so it seems according to their stats (and money) we have a reasonable chance

They also had Watford to go down the season they went up with us....

 

[Bruce Wayne]

We have a better chance than most. A stronger sqaud now so less fatigue like last season, money to spend in January and a years experience under the belt. Top 6 is a smart bet.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Don't think we've done enough to expect a much higher finish. If we do great, but If we didn't make the play offs id hardly say wilder underachieved. A top half finish is good in my books until the ownership issue is sorted.

The ownership thing shouldn’t affect what the players do out in the pitch though. Wilder had big issues at Northampton but still got them promoted.

I agree with you that it’s early days and we shouldn’t read too much into what we’ve seen so far, but...I have to say it...the quality of the football of late and the depth of the squad (still think we need more up top) leads me to believe we’re a good shout for top 6. And no, I really wouldn’t be happy with less. I’d accept it because that’s football, but really it would be an underachievement now.

There is some urgency about the need to get back to the top level of football. I’m not sure all fans have grasped that? I mean, financially, it’s critical to the long term future of the club. We are still losing money every season and we rely on making profits from the sales of players to survive. That’s not a long or even medium term business model for a club like us.

It’s damaging to be content with a top half finish. That will only lead to the sale of more of our better players and eventually the departure of the best manager we’ve had for decades. We absolutely must bust a gut to get promoted and we’ve got a great opportunity this season to achieve that.

 

[BladeInIreland]

The ownership thing shouldn’t affect what the players do out in the pitch though. Wilder had big issues at Northampton but still got them promoted.

I agree with you that it’s early days and we shouldn’t read too much into what we’ve seen so far, but...I have to say it...the quality of the football of late and the depth of the squad (still think we need more up top) leads me to believe we’re a good shout for top 6. And no, I really wouldn’t be happy with less. I’d accept it because that’s football, but really it would be an underachievement now.

There is some urgency about the need to get back to the top level of football. I’m not sure all fans have grasped that? I mean, financially, it’s critical to the long term future of the club. We are still losing money every season and we rely on making profits from the sales of players to survive. That’s not a long or even medium term business model for a club like us.

It’s damaging to be content with a top half finish. That will only lead to the sale of more of our better players and eventually the departure of the best manager we’ve had for decades. We absolutely must bust a gut to get promoted and we’ve got a great opportunity this season to achieve that.

I'll expand a bit on my post because I find myself agreeing with alot in your post.
I'd be happy with Wilders performance with a top half finish, as a club we have to be aiming higher. I have to disagree on the ownership not being a factor. Wilder deserves a lot of credit for building this impressive side on a budget and keeping us the right end of the table. Remember the Northampton job was such an achievement it got him the Sheffield united job. I went to the Villa game and I thought we were amazing to a man. I think we have a chance of the top 6 but I don't have any faith in the owners doing what's needed to get us over the line.( like last season). I also agree on the importance of making the step before losing key players again.

 

[Bill Johnson]

As in ' ..... after a non-voluntary forum holiday '? I can't keep up with 'em these days .



PS . It's not Tyler is it ! ?

Nope.

 

[Bill Johnson]

The ownership thing shouldn’t affect what the players do out in the pitch though. Wilder had big issues at Northampton but still got them promoted.

I agree with you that it’s early days and we shouldn’t read too much into what we’ve seen so far, but...I have to say it...the quality of the football of late and the depth of the squad (still think we need more up top) leads me to believe we’re a good shout for top 6. And no, I really wouldn’t be happy with less. I’d accept it because that’s football, but really it would be an underachievement now.

There is some urgency about the need to get back to the top level of football. I’m not sure all fans have grasped that? I mean, financially, it’s critical to the long term future of the club. We are still losing money every season and we rely on making profits from the sales of players to survive. That’s not a long or even medium term business model for a club like us.

It’s damaging to be content with a top half finish. That will only lead to the sale of more of our better players and eventually the departure of the best manager we’ve had for decades. We absolutely must bust a gut to get promoted and we’ve got a great opportunity this season to achieve that.

Good post. It says it all when just one season in the top flight can guarantee long term sustainability for clubs of our stature if correctly managed financially. The likes of Burnley WBA and Watford are in no way bigger than we are and even being something of yo yo clubs could spend North of 30m on a player without blinking. I think with our manager we could thrive in the Prem without profligate spending .

 

[Onetouchfootball]

Bristol will be toughest test since Boro. Take a draw...then two home games v bottom half teams where we can look to pick up more points...by next break you would hope we are still top 6 and Coutts ready to come back in

I disagree with the Bristol bit mate. I think that Boro and Leeds are currently the best 2 teams in the division by a long way and the rest are all beatable. I honestly believe that Derby will give us more problems than Bristol City? As they have a bit of pace going forward and that always causes us problems.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

If there’s anyone in this league we should fear........ they haven’t let themselves known yet.

 

[Bill Johnson]

I disagree with the Bristol bit mate. I think that Boro and Leeds are currently the best 2 teams in the division by a long way and the rest are all beatable. I honestly believe that Derby will give us more problems than Bristol City? As they have a bit of pace going forward and that always causes us problems.

Yet when they played put a 0 0 bore draw the other week they were both widely castigated for being nothing more than hoofers.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Last season we didn’t have cover for Coutts and we missed him badly. This season we have got cover for the all important ”Coutts role,” His name?..........Paul Coutts

 

[RealMcCoy]

Maybe

Definitely.
Definitely maybe.

 

[RealMcCoy]

It would help if you learnt how to use the reply button so we know who you are slagging off!


He did